Bulgaria's interior ministry is working to go digital and plans to bring in artificial intelligence and online services for citizens, interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev told a parliamentary committee.
Demerdzhiev said the ministry will change its administration and structures by the end of the year. So far 168 posts in the administration have been cut. The aim is fewer office staff, more officers with police duties, and the closure of units that are not needed.
A working group on the administration has finished its work. Its proposals will be discussed before a decision is made. Another group is reviewing the structures with police powers and will finish in about a month.
Staff with overlapping tasks and units that do not work well will be moved elsewhere. As an example, Demerdzhiev said more than 20 junior police inspectors from the centre that handles administrative offences have already moved to the Sofia directorate.
A third working group must propose what to do with staff who have different degrees of disability. Those who have reached retirement age and draw a pension will be looked at case by case, based on their duties and the shortage of staff in their unit.
The minister mentioned two cases of possible police violence. A check in Kardzhali into a case involving a young man will end soon, and another check has been ordered into a similar case in Veliko Tarnovo. Demerdzhiev said every such report will be checked quickly and carefully. "We do not tolerate, and will not tolerate, police violence," he said.
Deputy minister Kaloyan Kaloyanov spoke about road safety. He said more people have died in road crashes this year than in 2025, while the number of crashes is lower. Analyses show the main cause of crashes is wrong manoeuvres, not speed, he said.
Kaloyanov pointed to Spain, where road deaths have fallen over 10 years to 37 per million people. In Bulgaria the figure is 74 per million. He said the ministry's measures need more time to show results.